Governing Bandung's built heritage. A meta-governance approach to the local heritage conservation sector in Indonesia

Abstract

Conservation of built heritage in Indonesia is a relatively recent phenomenon. Slowly rising in the 1980s, the conservation discipline in the archipelago lags nearly two centuries behind its western counterpart. Ever since the emergence of protecting and preserving the built environment in Indonesian cities, many efforts have stranded. Built heritage is still being mismanaged and insufficiently maintained, leading to dilapidation or demolition of monuments. Cause of this problem is twofold. First, interaction between stakeholders operating in the network is currently rather weak. Second, legislative support and regulatory coordination of this network are insufficient. Those shortcomings affect both the effectivity of heritage conservation discipline, and its democratic content. This thesis refers to those issues in terms of governance arrangements. It presents the concept of meta-governance in particular and relates it to the current deficiencies in the self-organizing network of local heritage conservation in Bandung.This thesis applies meta-governance theories to an empirical analysis of local heritage conservation practice, and tries to find appropriate and suitable recommendations for an effective and democratic network of heritage conservation in Bandung, that can be applied to the role of the local government in particular.